Last Night:

Flash Sentry and his team (consisting of Bulk Biceps, Snips, Snails, Micro Chips, Sandalwood, the Diamond Boys, a fashionista named Scott Green, and a drama boy named Nolan North) were all walking along the sidewalk toward Zak’s house. Their plan was to free Sunset Shimmer from his cruel grasp. Since the Five were getting nowhere in trying to breakup this toxic relationship, these boys decided it was time to take matters into their own hands. Flash was especially eager to save Sunset, since she was his ex-girlfriend and although he didn’t admit it deep down he still had some feelings for her.

“So what’s the plan?” Rover asked ready for action.

“I’ll go in alone for now, the rest of you hang back and watch,” Flash said. “A full-on brawl is the last thing anyone wants.”

“Speak for yourself,” Spot remarked clutching his right fist.

“I need to try and talk to Sunset first,” Flash continued. “She needs to know how concerned everyone is about her and that she needs to leave that creep. All of you hang back and observe for now. But if things start getting ugly, then jump in. Okay?”

“Got it,” the rest of the boys agreed.

“Okay, here I go,” Flash said beginning to separate from the group who stopped walking till they were at least twenty feet from the house. “Wish me luck.”

Flash walked up to the door of the creepy old house, took a deep breath, and knocked on it. After a moment, it opened a little to reveal Sunset Shimmer.

“Flash?!” Sunset said surprised. “What are you doing here?”

“I was concerned about you,” he answered with a warm and concerned expression on his face. “I wanted to see if you were okay.”

“Well as you can see, I’m doing fine,” Sunset politely reassured him. “Sorry, but you should leave. Zak doesn’t like uninvited visitors.”

“That’s what I want to talk to you about, Sunset,” Flash said with a serious expression on his face.

“Flash please,” Sunset pleaded. “Whatever it is, we can—”

“Hey!” came Zak’s unpleasant voice. “What the hell is taking you so long, Sunset?” Then Zak appeared at the end of the hall behind Sunset. He looked very annoyed as he walked toward them. Sunset backed up against the wall to avoid bumping into him and making him even angrier. Zak stopped when he reached them and glared at Flash. “Who’s this fuck?”

“He’s a friend from school,” Sunset answered timidly.

“What’s your name?” Zak asked Flash in a seemingly polite tone as his glare formed into a menacing smile. “I said ‘what’s your name?’!” he repeated the question more aggressively.

“Flash… Sentry,” Flash nervously answered. This was the first time he met Sunset’s new boyfriend, and he was already making him feel uneasy. He could tell just by looking at him that he didn’t have any humane qualities.

“He’s a nice guy, Zak,” Sunset said hoping to lighten the mood a little.

“Shut the fuck up!” Zak responded threateningly. Seeing him threaten Sunset like that in front of him already started to make Flash’s blood boil. Zak turned his attention back to Flash with that sick smile on his face. “Wanna go for a ride?”

“No thanks,” Flash politely replied trying to hide his anger.

“No thanks?!” Zak said sounding surprised. “What does that mean?”

“I don’t want to go.”

“Go where?”

“For a ride. I don’t want to go for a ride.”

“A ride! Yeah, let’s go for a little ride,” Zak said grabbing Flash by the shoulder. It was clear he wasn’t going to take no for an answer. “Me and the boys were just on our way out and we could use some more company to make things more fun. Right boys?”

At the end of the hall, Scratch and Chunk were there voicing their agreement.

“Yeah, call the rest of the gang and tell them to meet us at the Nightmare Moon Bar,” he ordered his men. “You, get in the car,” he ordered Sunset who obediently did as she was told. “Come on, let’s all go for a ride.” He then started dragging Flash to his car by his shoulder.

Outside, Flash’s group watched from behind a large tree in the front yard of another house two houses away and saw Zak and his two cohorts coming out of the house with Sunset and Flash. All five of them got in the car that was parked next to the sidewalk in front of the house and then took off.

“What should we do now?” Snips asked.

“Follow them,” Micro Chips replied and started stealthily pursuing the moving vehicle with the other boys following right behind him.

Later on, Zak, his goons, Sunset, and Flash all arrived at the Nightmare Moon Bar (a bar that was open all night long) where they met up with the rest of Zak’s gang. They were all having drinks, playing pool and darts, and some were laughing and making bets while two drunk members got into a brawl. Sunset and Flash were the only ones that didn’t look like they were having fun. The two were forced to sit at a table with Zak, Scratch, and Chunk. They were spending most of the time listening to Zak talk about disgusting, disrespectful, and embarrassing things about Sunset, getting back at people who owe him money, or other horrible things he and his gang did to people mostly for fun.

“And so if that dipshit who runs the Sugarcube Café doesn’t pay up by next week, me and the boys will go over there, knock out a few of his teeth, and vandalize the place a bit. Sounds like a pretty fun idea doesn’t it?” Zak said with a cackle. Scratch and Chunk both cackled with him. However, Sunset and Flash looked very disturbed by this. “By the way, I heard you and my girl here used to be an item.” This made both Flash and Sunset become very nervous. The neutral look on his face made hard to tell if he was angry. “Did you ever ‘check out’ your ex carefully? Cause I sure did!” Then he and his two thugs started laughing like hysterical hyenas while a clearly embarrassed Sunset just stared at the ground.

“Can we please talk about something else?” Flash politely asked noticing how uncomfortable Sunset looked.

“Why? Everyone looks like they’re having a good time,” Zak argued. Then Sunset got up from her seat. Zak immediately grabbed her arm in a tight grip. “Where do you think you’re going?” he asked threateningly.

“I was just going to use the bathroom,” Sunset nervously replied.

“Be quick about it,” Zak ordered and released her arm. Sunset walked to the other end of the bar where the restrooms where located. Once she was out of sight, Zak turned his attention back to his unwilling guest. “Girls, you know what I mean?”

Inside the restroom, Sunset leaned against the sink and stared into the mirror above it. She looked very stressed and the way Zak and his gang were treating her in front of her ex wasn’t helping at all. She stared at her miserable-looking reflection in the mirror for a moment. But then reflections of the Five suddenly appeared standing behind her with angry expressions on their faces.

“Secret stealer!” the Pinkie reflection said with venom in her voice.

Startled, Sunset spun around and saw that there was no one there. Taking some deep heavy breathes, Sunset turned back around, turned on the sink faucet, started splashing water in her face to help calm herself down.

Back outside, Zak was finishing a very ‘informational’ conversation with Flash.

“So you see, Flash. Women are like dogs. If you don’t train them right, they will never learn obedience. I mean, imagine what how difficult it would be to have a disobedient bitch in your home that just does whatever it wants whenever it wants.”

“You’d need a shit-ton of newspaper,” Scratch remarked causing everyone at the table, except Flash, to burst into hysterical laughter.

Flash just sat in his seat quietly glaring at Zak. The only useful thing he learned from this conversation was that this guy did not respect Sunset, or women in general, at all. Never in all his life had Flash met such a disgusting, amoral, and cruel excuse of a human being such as this guy. Flash felt like he might go crazy if he continued to hang around this guy and his gang any longer.

“Where the hell is she?!” Zak said becoming impatient. Sunset had been in the restroom for a little over a minute. “See what I mean?!”

“There she is,” Chunk said spotting Sunset coming through the bathroom door.

“Watch and learn from the master,” Zak said proudly and got up from his seat and started walking towards Sunset. As soon as he got to her, he tightly grabbed her left arm. “Where the hell were you?! I thought I told you to ‘be quick’!” he threatened her.

“I… I…” she stammered nervously. “Ow!” she yelled as Zak began to painfully twist her arm.

“My boys and I do so much for you and you continue to repay our kindness like this!” Zak viciously scolded. “Is a little obedience too fucking much to ask?!”

“Please Zak, you’re hurting me!” Sunset pleaded for him to stop twisting her arm. But he only twisted it more.

“Leave her alone!” Flash suddenly yelled unable to take it anymore. Instantly, everyone in the bar stopped what they were doing and turned their attention completely on Flash. They all stared at him as if he just sprouted a second head and challenged God.

“What was that?!” Zak hissed glaring at Flash.

“I said ‘leave her alone!’” Flash repeated himself getting out of his seat and marching towards Zak. The rocker glared at the gang leader with threatening angry eyes.

“You already had your chance with her, dickhead. So fuck off!” Zak viciously retorted. Then his furious glare turned to a disturbing malicious grin. “Besides, I’ve bigger things to give her than you ever did. Why else do you think we’re still together?” Then in a cruel act of spite, he twisted Sunset’s arm even more, all the while staring at Flash with a sadistic grin on his face.

“AAAAHHHHH!” Sunset cried in pain as her arm was twisted.

Unable to stand it anymore, Flash snapped and in the blink of an eye threw his right fist right in the middle of Zak’s face causing him to let go of Sunset’s arm and land on his back. Everyone in the bar gasped and stared in shock at what the young rocker just did.

“Flash!” a horrified Sunset said. She stared at him as if he just pissed off an angry lion.

The tension increased as Zak started getting back on his feet. The gang leader had his right hand over his face covering everything below his eyes. Blood dripped through his fingers. He glared at Flash with murder in his eyes.

“You piece of shit!” Zak hissed furiously. “Looks me and the boys need to teach you a little lesson!”

Suddenly, Scratch and Chunk grabbed both of Flash’s arms restraining him and preventing him from defending himself.

“Take him out back,” Zak ordered his goons.

“No Zak!” Sunset cried and grabbed his right arm. “He didn’t mean it! It wasn’t his fault! Please let him go!” she desperately pleaded.
SMACK!

Sunset’s pleas were given their response when Zak freed his arm from her grasp and backhanded her across the face. Witnessing this made Flash’s blood boil even more than it already was.

“Restrain her,” Zak ordered another one of his gang members who got Sunset in a full nelson. “Stupid bitch.”

Zak and his gang dragged both Flash and Sunset outside through the backdoor of the bar. Most of the gang held Flash while Zak was preparing to give him the most brutal beat down of his life. Poor Sunset was held back and being forced to watch.

“You got guts doing something like this to me,” Zak said pointing to his bloody nose. “And now I’m going to see if I can knock them out through your mouth.” Suddenly, he upper cutted his right fist right into Flash’s stomach causing the rocker’s eyes grow wide and groan in pain. Then he followed that up with a harder uppercut with his left arm, then another with his right, and then his left again. Each blow was harder than the last. Soon he started kicking Flash in the torso knocking the wind out of him. His gang all cheered him on as he beat the living crap out of the defenseless high school student.

“PLEASE STOP IT!” Sunset desperately cried with tears dripping from her eyes.

“SHUT UP!” Zak yelled back at her. Then he grabbed the collar of Flash’s jacket with his left hand and started repeatedly punching him in the face with his right. Eventually, he stopped and the rocker had a big swollen black eye and blood was dripping from his nose and mouth. “And now…” Zak said with an evil grin as he reached into his right pocket and pulled out s switchblade. “Let’s put a smile on that face of yours.”

“NOOO!” Sunset screamed as Zak started to cut Flash’s left cheek.

“Hold it right there!” a nerdy-sounding voice suddenly yelled. Everyone instantly stopped what they were doing and turned to see another group of boys standing twenty feet from them. The group turned out to be the other guys Flash had brought along with him, and by the looks of it, they were done sticking to the shadows and were ready for a fight.

“I’d let go of our friends if I were you guys,” Nolan North said.

“YEEAAHH!” Bulk Biceps followed up brandishing his fists.

Zak’s gang immediately let go of Flash who quickly walked over to join his companions.

“Woah! Flash, you look terrible, dude,” Sandalwood said examining his friend’s injuries.

“It’s okay. I might’ve looked even worse if you guys hadn’t shown up when you did,” Flash assured him.

“I think now would be okay for a full-on brawl,” Rover said.

Both groups got ready to fight. Zak’s gang pulled out various deadly-looking weapons like chains, knives, brass knuckles, and a few of them actually had guns. Sunset was still held back and watched anxiously and helplessly as both sides prepared for combat. She silently prayed for something to stop this before it even began. With the weapons and ruthlessness Zak’s gang had, Flash’s group would surely suffer.

“Shall we fuck them up, boss?” Chunk eagerly asked Zak.

“Taking down these pussies will be fun,” Scratch added with sadistic excitement in his voice.

“No,” Zak whispered to his two cohorts. “I’d love to teach these dumb fucks who they’re dealing with. Unfortunately, it’s not part of the job.”

“Then what do we do?” Scratch quietly asked.

Zak thought for a moment. Then he got an idea. “Stand down, boys,” he ordered his gang who did as they told with surprised and confused expressions on their faces. Flash’s group looked just as surprised and confused as them. Were they giving up? What was Zak up to? “I have a better idea.” Then he walked over to his restrained girlfriend. “Okay Sunset, I’ll give you three minutes to clear out these bastards. Three minutes or, well, you know what the worst thing in the world is,” Zak told her with a sinister smile. Instantly, Sunset’s facial expression turned to one of absolute horror. She knew what he was talking about. Flash also noticed how scared Sunset looked. It was apparent that Zak was holding something over her.

“I’ll do it,” Sunset nervously complied. “I’ll get them to leave.”

“Good,” Zak said satisfied and snapped his fingers. The thug holding Sunset released her and she walked over to confront Flash and his group.

“You guys really need to leave,” Sunset politely told the boys from CHS. “You’ve caused enough trouble already.”

“Sunset, we’re just trying to help,” Flash said.

“How? By causing fights?” Sunset argued.

“He started it,” Flash argued back. “I was only standing up for you.”

“Did the girls put you up to this? Because if they did, please tell them to stop meddling. I’m perfectly fine!”

“No, you’re not! He’s hurting you!” The intensity of the argument was increasing. “It’s obvious to everyone. Why do you continue to hang around and defend that son of a bitch?”

“Look, I know things look a little rough, but I keep telling everyone all I can handle myself. But you make things worse the more you try to butt in.”

“What happened to you? The old you never would’ve let anyone push you around like that!” The moment those words left Flash’s lips, the rocker immediately covered his mouth with both hands realizing he might’ve said the absolute wrong thing to say in this argument. Many of Flash’s companions gasped in shock when they heard him say that last sentence, Zak grinned with satisfaction realizing that things were going in his favor, and a very hurt-looking expression formed on Sunset’s face. Flash definitely didn’t think before speaking.

“I guess some things never do change after all,” Sunset said in a heartbroken tone and lowered her head in sadness. Tears started to form in her eyes again. It seemed to her that she would never be free of her wretched past.

“Sunset,” Flash said in a gentler and more calm tone. He was clearly regretting the choice of words he used. “I’m not trying to hurt you. I know Zak’s holding something over you, but no one can help you unless you let us.”

“You don’t understand,” Sunset somberly replied. “I don’t think any of you truly understand the situation here.”

“What’s wrong?” Flash asked confused. Sunset got closer and started whispering something into his ear. By the time she was finished, Flash’s face was etched with shock and horrific realization. Whatever Sunset just told him, it made him look like he committed a very terrible crime. “Sunset… I… I…” he stammered trying to speak, but the newfound guilt was eating away at his insides preventing him from speaking clearly.

“Please, just forget about me,” Sunset said with great sadness. “I’m sorry things couldn’t had been better between us.” Then she turned and rejoined Zak’s group. “I’ve talked to them. They’ll never bother you ever again.”

“Excellent!” Zak said with satisfaction. “Now let’s go back inside and drink a few more rounds.” The rest of his gang cheered triumphantly as they and a sad Sunset all went back into the bar leaving Flash and his friends outside cold, confused, and feeling utterly defeated.

“What the hell just happened?!” Rover exclaimed unsatisfied.

“Could someone explain to me what just happened,” a clueless Snails asked.

“Well, that could’ve gone better,” Scott Green bitterly remarked.

“So what’s next plan?” Sandalwood asked Flash.

“There is no next plan,” he replied with a voice full of sorrow.

“WHAT?!” the other boys all exclaimed.

“So we’re NOT going to try and help Sunset Shimmer?!” Snips asked confused and unhappy.

“No, we’re not,” Flash replied turning to face them with a bruised and beaten face filled with guilt and devoid of hope. “We can’t.” Then he walked past them and started heading off into the night. He looked so broken and defeated. “See you all at school tomorrow.”

“So we’re just going to give up?!” Bulk asked with tears in his eyes.

“We had our chance to help that girl, and we missed it. A long time ago,” he replied not even bothering to look back.

Present Day:

Flash had met up with the Five and had told them everything that had happened to him last night, except what Sunset had whispered to him. He figured it would be best if Sunset had the chance to tell them that herself. The cut on his left cheek was covered by a large gauze, but his right eye was still dark and swollen.

“I’m so sorry for what happened to you, Flash,” Fluttershy said sympathetically.

“So you’re not going to try and help Sunset again?!” Rainbow Dash said disappointed. “Whatever happened to ‘Boys of CHS, this is our time to shine’?”

“This whole thing is worse than you think,” Flash sadly told them. “You don’t know the true reason behind Sunset Shimmer’s pain.”

“The reason is a big wretched excuse of a human being named Zak,” Rarity said bitterly. “Plain and simple.”

“But girls-” Flash tried to reason with them, but it was no use.

“We appreciate that you tried ta help, Flash,” Applejack said. “But it looks like it’s still up ta us ta help our friend.”

“Thanks for trying,” Pinkie expressed her gratitude.

“But what’ll we do?” Fluttershy asked. “Sunset won’t listen to us.”

“Don’t worry, ah have an idea,” Applejack announced. “Let’s all meet after classes then ah can explain everything.” With that, she and the rest of her friends left to go to their classes confident that they’d be successful this time.

However, Flash watched them all leave with a face filled with doubt and pity. They had no idea what was really going on or what they were getting themselves into.

“You know what’s really wrong with Sunset, don’t ya?” asked a pitiful voice that was revealed to be Apple Bloom joined by Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. They all shared the same facial expression he had.

“We figured it out,” Sweetie Belle said.

“I’m afraid this whole thing is doomed to end in tears,” Flash said sadly.

“And it’s our fault,” Scootaloo remorsefully concluded.

Author's Note

Well, it appears Flash and the Crusaders know what's really going on. When the Five finally find out, it will break them.